


Tomorrow a New World

by SpraceJunkie



Series: People of the Resistance [1]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Resistance AU, SO, Slash, hgjkhkj i love phineas and ferb, spy AU, u know the aesthetic of the resistance from the phineas and ferb movie?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 10:15:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14746913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpraceJunkie/pseuds/SpraceJunkie
Summary: “Tomorrow a new world.” She repeated the informal motto of the resistance like she believed it. It was both a hope and a promise, vowing to fight for a better world and hoping that the next sunrise would bring a better one with it.Six months ago Katherine never would have made that promise.Now she was ready to take her place in fulfilling it.Or Katherine used to be a double agent working against the resistance. Now she works for them.





	Tomorrow a New World

_0300_

Katherine was used to waking up early, especially on report days.

She still wasn’t quite used to Sarah waking up next to her, grinning conspiratorially and making sure she had everything packed for the day, sending her off with a kiss.

She definitely wasn’t used to the anxious flutters in her stomach she was feeling today.

She’d been an agent for four years, been training since she was ten, and today was the first day she could truly say she was terrified for the outcome of what she was about to do.

Six months ago, she would have been nervous for entirely different reasons, nervous because she was starting to see things from an entirely new perspective, and because she could tell she was starting to get in over her head with the people she was involved with.

She would have been nervous because she considered them her friends, all of them. 

Jack, the leader whose confidence in front of his compatriots was overridden by dorky, terrible jokes as soon as he wasn’t giving a speech.

Race, the twitchy, quick-fingered sneak thief who could get in and out of almost anywhere unseen, and talk his way out of anywhere else.

Crutchie, the ever so optimistic but twice as tough technology specialist who could program and build things faster than Katherine could comprehend the blueprints.

Davey, the strategist, quick to call out stupid ideas but quicker to praise a good one, always willing to slow down and explain anything anyone was confused about.

Sarah, Davey’s sister and right-hand man, who gave speeches alongside Jack and handled the secret keeping.

Six months ago, Katherine had still been firmly planted on _her_ side of things, in her belief that the government was doing what was right and that the resistance was fighting for an ultimately useless cause, a cause that would hurt the people more than help them.

Six months ago, though, her firm foundation had started to crumble as they started to trust her more, both making her feel bad for betraying them and proud that she could do her job. Jack had taken her on a recruitment mission.

She’d been expecting a trip to a college, a party, a meeting with people who didn’t know better, whose minds were vulnerable to being turned away from the truth.

She had been so, so wrong.

What she’d gotten instead was streets of dirty, thin faces who welcomed Jack with quiet voices. Their faces lit up, tired eyes smiling behind carefully closed doors and windows while Jack gave out little bits of food and whispered reassurance.

He didn’t try to get people to come back with them, he simply welcomed those who asked to come with open arms, reassuring families that the young ones would only help where it was safe, watching quietly while the older ones promised to come home later.

Katherine had been expecting the same people she grew up with, people who were revolutionaries only for a fun new way to rebel, a new kind of trouble to talk themselves out of.

Instead, she got people whose very existence was an act of radical revolution, surviving when the world was doing its best to kill them, people who joined for the chance to eat and for the chance to fight for a better world to go home to one day.

That was the first glimpse of the real world Katherine had ever gotten. 

She’d always been sent to places similar to where she grew up, where it was easy to pretend the resistance didn’t need anything they wanted.

That trip had led to her first ever missed report day with an excuse about not being able to get away without suspicion, and going dark for the whole next month.

Her father wouldn’t worry. She knew him. He wouldn’t worry because he knew her, and knew that she would likely get herself out of any situation she got into, and he knew that it wasn’t worth sacrificing a long-term mission to get her out. And anyway, if she died, he had plenty of agents ready to take the place she’d so recently claimed as the favored agent, so it was no big loss to him. The fact that she was his daughter didn’t mean much to him and it never had. She was disposable.

It had also led to her learning to be afraid, truly afraid, of what the people she was surrounded by were capable of. She’d seen hard anger in Jack’s eyes, in everyone’s eyes, when she’d confessed what she’d been doing since she’d gotten there.

That the government knew more about them than they’d thought, that Katherine had been sneaking away one day a month to spill their secrets.

It had taken a while to earn their trust back, not that she blamed them. But slowly and surely, they noticed the changes happening. Government forces reported showing up just a little bit too late to stop a hit, supply chains rerouted away from Trap A but directly into Trap B, little things going right that hadn’t gone right since Katherine had gotten there, proving to them that maybe she was still technically a double agent, but she was working for them, not against them.

Now she was getting ready to fully prove herself, to set the first step in motion that would lead to toppling the government and getting all those tired, hungry people the help they needed.

“You’re sure you have everything?” Sarah fussed with the straps on Katherine’s pack, looking worried.

“Electro bombs, taser, regulation wires and mics, bugs. Lunch. Water. I’ll be okay.” Katherine kissed her on the forehead. “This is what I do.”

“That doesn’t make it less dangerous.”

“I have to get going, love. I’ll be back tonight, I promise. Then your revolution really begins.”

“It’s ours, now. Ours and Jack’s and Race’s, all of ours.” Katherine nodded, slinging her pack over her shoulder and standing up straight.

“Our revolution starts tonight. Tomorrow a new world.” Sarah smiled a little.

“Tomorrow a new world.” She repeated the informal motto of the resistance like she believed it. It was both a hope and a promise, vowing to fight for a better world and hoping that the next sunrise would bring a better one with it.

Six months ago Katherine never would have made that promise.

Now she was ready to take her place in fulfilling it.

_0600_

Driving had long been Katherine’s favorite part of her job.

As a spy, there were very few times she got to completely relax and be herself.

Behind the wheel, on the three-hour drive to the place she’d used to call home, was one of those times.

The radio had long ago turned completely to government propaganda. Six months ago, she may have enjoyed some of that music. Now, hearing the voices of people she’d called her friends sing and talk about how great the government was and how incredible the work being done from the capital was made her stomach turn.

Jack and Sarah had set up their own radio station, one on some frequency Crutchie had managed to hide from the government. Nothing secure went out over it, so it was possible they just didn’t care, but Katherine had long ago memorized what songs meant what.

About five minutes after she left, they played “Highway to Hell,” and she knew it was whoever was running the broadcast’s way of giving her a send-off. Now, as the massive fence surrounding the capitol came into view, they were playing “Revolution Radio,” and she knew they knew exactly where she was and wanted to give her the perfect soundtrack to orchestrate her father’s downfall to.

Or they could have just found the song and thought it was funny how appropriate it was to play on their underground revolution radio.

Either way, she let it play as long as she could before switching back to a propaganda channel and putting on her secret agent face as she approached the gate.

“Papers?” The guard at the border station to enter the capital city didn’t look at her immediately.

“Katherine Pulitzer. Look me up.” The guard looked up, and Katherine took in as much about him as she could. He was young, new, she didn’t recognize his face at all. This was probably his first real job, and she was about to use him to take down the government.

He turned a pale shade of green when he recognized her, like every border guard did. He’d probably been warned she was coming today; it was a normal reporting day.

“Miss Pulitzer, I am so sorry-”

“It’s fine, just let me through, please.” He opened the gate to allow her through, and she exhaled. “I’m in.” She whispered to the cuff of her jacket.

She wasn’t wearing an earpiece, they’d see it, but she had a tiny bug hidden in her cuff, one of the ones that used to be wired back here, so they wouldn’t question it. 

They thought they had the monopoly on government regulation surveillance equipment, but with a turned agent, they were wrong, and Katherine planned on exploiting that weakness to its fullest extent.

When she parked in front of the oh-so-familiar building to give her “report” and lay the groundwork for that night's attack, she was nervous again. She forced herself to breathe before opening her door and climbing out.

“Katherine! Your father is waiting upstairs.” Katherine nodded at the woman behind the desk, carefully keeping up the cool, collected image of a spy everyone here was used to.

Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun, her bangs pinned back out of her eyes. All of her clothes were fitted just right, her normal weapons secured where they belonged, she looked the part she was playing, and as far as anyone knew, this put together woman _was_ the real Katherine.

Really, she’d changed into a person who’d rather have her hair in a loose ponytail, wear comfortable clothes, and, oh yeah, take down the government.

_0900_

Her father was as terrible as she remembered.

Worse even.

She tuned him out after a few minutes of monologuing about what was happening in the government, knowing he would be content to go on like that for at least twenty minutes.

While he talked, she fiddled under his desk, careful to keep it looking like a nervous habit as she armed a bug and stuck it under his desk.

The rest of their meeting went just like normal, Katherine giving just enough information that was correct but not helpful to get praised for doing her job.

Afterwards, she walked around the compound, greeting people while she cautiously hid the things they would need later that night everywhere she could think of. 

The electro bombs were easiest, tucked away behind crates of things just like them, the only difference being that they were activated. A few she tacked up far back on the undersides of desks, working quickly under the guise of recovering a dropped pen or disk.

Different weapons she hid different places, making mental notes so she could get them to the people who would need them later.

The people around her didn’t suspect a thing. Katherine Pulitzer, daughter of the boss and favorite spy, wouldn’t ever be sabotaging her own father and the government she spied for.

Katherine Plumber, double agent for the resistance, a role she was increasingly comfortable with, definitely would, could, and was.

_1300_

When Katherine made it back outside the city, far enough away she knew they couldn’t be listening, she turned her radio back to the resistance station. 

The drive out to the meeting spot was only about an hour outside the city. It was a huge bunker hidden in the trees, most of it underground, and when Katherine entered, it was full of everybody she knew and more.

“Kat! We’re good?”

“All set.” Jack grinned at her and pulled her into a room with all the leaders she knew and a few she hadn’t met. 

“Everyone, this is Katherine, our double agent. Kat, this is Spot, Smalls, Jojo, and Finch, from a few of our other bases.” Katherine watched them size her up. 

“She’s the one who gave them information?” Spot, a short guy who stood like he was six feet tall, didn’t look impressed.

“She’s the one who just planted enough weapons to arm half of the guys out there and bugs in places we couldn’t have hoped to get to.” Jack defended her. “She’s with us now.” Katherine nodded.

Sarah stepped up next to her and took her hand.

“How long do we have?” She asked.

“No longer than tonight. I hid everything, but they’ll find them eventually.”

The people outside their little room were ready to go. Katherine could see the determined set of their jaws, and all of them had their own packs either on their backs or next to while they sat.

Nobody smiled, but they didn’t look scared or unsure. They looked like they were ready to go fight for what they believed in. They sat or stood in small groups, some talking quietly, most just watching silently as the group of leaders stepped out.

It was the exact inverse of the army Katherine had grown up with.

While her father’s troops were neat, orderly, clean, always in straight lines, their weapons perfectly polished, the people in front of her were the tired, hungry, wire-thin people of the cities. Her father’s troops fought for a government that they were obligated to, these people were fighting because if they didn’t, they had no hope of there ever being anything better.

These people, with bags under their eyes, nibbling on hard bread, clutching homemade weapons, ready to fight people they didn’t even know for sure they could beat, were willing to give everything up if it made life better for others.

“Tomorrow a new world!” Jack finished the speech he’d been giving about their cause and fight and how it was going to happen with his promise, and Katherine heard it echoed, first quietly and then louder, across the people in front of them.

The call spread back through the bunker, until it was bouncing around all the cement walls, filling the entire space with its promise and hope.

“Tomorrow a new world!” Katherine joined in, unable to not smile. 

Today was the last day of the old one. Tomorrow, a new world began.

_1631_

Katherine stood next to Jack, looking at the people standing behind them.

The guards at the city gate were frantic. Katherine could see them rushing around, and within moments of the ragtag resistance army appearing on the hill in front of the city, Katherine saw the flashing alarm lights start.

“How much will be down?”

“With the size of the bombs and Crutchie’s modifications at least half the city. The entire barracks and capital building and everything around them.”

“What about the gate?”

“All we need is one person inside the booth to hit the button and it’ll stay open until everyone is in.” Jack nodded, turning slowly. 

“Whenever you’re ready, then.” Katherine exhaled and hit the button that would trigger all the electro bombs she’d planted everywhere.

In an instant, the lights flickered out, spiraling out from the central compound and stopping a few blocks from the edge.

“Nice. Go!” Jack complimented her and started the first attack in the same breath. Katherine watched the people flow around her, heading into the city. The gate opened and stayed open, letting everyone inside. The guards tried to stop them, but weren’t ready to face that many people flooding in at once. 

Katherine herself followed the last people inside, ready to work clean up, do the quiet jobs she was best at as opposed to the rushed force subduing people.

“Capture more than you kill.” Jack had instructed as they got ready to head out. “We aren't like them. If they try to kill you, do your best to no more than hurt. We want them on our side, at least eventually, killing them won't do that.”

Katherine secured anyone who could have been a threat from behind, taking weapons as she went. Most of them, by the time she reached them, didn’t put up too much of a fight, already overwhelmed by the main group.

_1900_

It took a while to fully secure the city. 

When Katherine finally entered the compound, her hair had long ago fallen out of its bun. She’d changed into the same uniform as the rest of them, which was pretty much whatever dark, breathable clothing they could find. All of her pins had fallen out long ago, leaving her hair in a frizzy, untamed ponytail with bangs pushed up her forehead. She looked like a revolutionary, not the spy she’d been only a few hours before.

She stepped into the compound confidently, head held high. This was where she grew up, she had called it home, and now she was proudly watching it be fully taken over by the same people she’d been taught to fight against her whole life.

“Katherine! Get out of here, go get help from Tretin!” Katherine turned towards the voice, recognizing a man who’d trained her for years, handcuffed to a bench with a row of other military officials.

“Nah.” She grinned at him, and saw the look of horror spread over his face as he took in her outfit and the way Jack was waving her over from where the leaders had taken over a conference room.

“You-”

“See you later. Duty calls.” She flipped her fingers in a mocking salute, not quite able to wipe the grin off her face as she opened the door to the conference room. It felt good to have him know she was using the skills her'd taught her to fight against him.

The leaders were grouped around the table, reading plans for the next leg of their takeover.

“Katherine.” Somebody said her name from the corner of the room. Her father was handcuffed to a chair, a split lip and bloody nose ruining the perfectly manicured look he’d been so carefully maintaining earlier that morning. “Tell them.” He was so perfectly confident that she was on his side.

Jack laughed behind her.

“Tell us what, Pulitzer? We already know everything.”

“Not everything.” He said defiantly. Jack laughed again.

“She’s your daughter, she’s a spy, and, oh yeah, she’s the one who made this entire operation possible. Pulitzer, you really should take the time to get to know your own daughter.” Pulitzer’s eyes flicked rapidly between Katherine and Jack, like he couldn’t quite process what he was hearing.

“Katherine, what does he mean?”

“He means, Father, you shouldn’t have made me such a good double agent if you didn’t want me to turn. How do you think the weapons and electro bombs got in here?” Just like her old teacher, Katherine saw complete horror spread over her father’s face as he realized what was happening.

“Traitor.” He spat, horror turning to anger.

“I’d rather be a traitor than one of your agents.”

_2100_

Most of the people they captured they secured in the various prisons and holding cells throughout the city. The capital city was mostly populated by the rich and military, the people who wouldn’t support the resistance outright. The few people who did were the low-level workers, the ones in charge of sanitation or cleaning for the rich people who didn’t want to clean their own houses.

Many people recognized Katherine. She saw the people on their side, the ones helping clean up again and helping revolutionaries find their way around, watching her warily, even after seeing her making plans with Jack and Spot.

Spot didn’t trust her either. He never took his eyes off her, like he was nervous she would suddenly start working against them.

For somebody so small, he was intimidating, and Katherine could see how he’d become a leader.

By the time the sun had set, Jack had assigned guard shifts to all the prisons, makeshift or otherwise, and all of the leaders were sitting in a circle on the floor of the conference room, eating whatever they could find and studying maps and plans for the next pieces of their takeover.

Sarah was leaning against her, Jack was laughing at some stupid joke Race had made, and even though there was so much left to do, they’d started to fulfill their promise already.

Tomorrow a new world, and tomorrow was starting her and now.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey my dudes and welcome back to another episode of "Why Can't Asper Make Up Their Mind and Stick To One AU?"
> 
> Comments are much appreciated, especially if you have advice or constructive things to say, and are guaranteed to make me smile!


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